Daniel, arguably the grandest of the city’s top dining rooms is planning a rehab, though it won’t be until the summer. Though neither the restaurant nor its patrons are dissatisfied with the current room (and why would they be? It looks like the gateway to the afterlife, circa 1895!), the renovation will keep the place fresh. “Upper East Side ladies get their face-lifts before they’re needed,” spokeswoman Georgette Farkas tells us. “It's something we’ve been thinking about. But Daniel doesn’t want to do anything too revolutionary.” Farkas wouldn’t name names, but a source close to the restaurant says designer Adam Tihany, who did Le Cirque 3.0 and Osteria del Circo, is topping the short list of candidates. In the meantime, the Daniel empire has plenty to keep it busy: Bar Boulud is still slated for a December opening; Maison Boulud, in Bejing, will open in March; and Boulud’s downtown burger bar is, sadly, still unnamed.
Related:Exclusive: Feast Your Eyes on Bar Boulud, Coming in November

Breaking news on the as-yet-unnamed Daniel Boulud burger restaurant (the “DBGB” moniker is gone): The lease has been signed and the restaurant is officially a go, according to Boulud's spokeswoman Georgette Farkas. The much-ballyhooed burger place at 299 Bowery will be opening in the summer of 2008, and will be designed by Thomas Schlesser, the same intelligence behind the look of this fall’s DB entry, Bar Boulud. “The DBGB name isn’t happening,” Farkas tells us. “So in-house we’re calling it TBDB.”

All systems are go for DBGB, or whatever Daniel Boulud’s concept burger joint will be called. Community Board 2 granted the restaurateur a liquor license with hardly any hassle at all, according to spokeswoman Georgette Farkas. “Now we can go ahead and plan and design our restaurant, which will probably open in late 2008.” And the controversial DBGB name? Is that still a go? “We really don’t know yet,” Farkas tells us. “We were having a little fun with it, but we’ll have to see where it goes. Whatever the right thing ends up being, we’ll do the right thing.” And they’ll do it with a fully stocked bar.